The first case of Tamiflu resistance in swine flu has been reported in a Danish patient, says Roche.

Roche’s head of influenza task force, David Reddy, said that the patient was given Tamiflu in a low dose as preventative. Apparently, the patient had come in contact with someone else infected with the H1N1 virus (swine flu).

The patient nonetheless developed flu symptoms and was later found to have a virus mutation that caused the resistance. The patient has since recovered.

Reddy and the Danish government, however, say that they see resistance to seasonal flu and that 0.4% of adults and 4% of children with seasonal flu develop resistance:

“We know from seasonal flu that a proportion of patients can develop resistance. We fully expect that this also can occur during treatment with a new flu strain…(swine flu) remains sensitive to the drug. What this does underscore is the continued need for resistance monitoring.” ”

Scary, but nothing to worry about we say.

Here’s the Bloomberg story.

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